Short sellers bet against SpaceX as post-debut losses mount
SpaceX short interest climbed to about 196 million shares, or 31% of the float, even as bearish traders booked about $760 million in paper losses.
Short sellers had pushed their bet against SpaceX to about 196 million shares, or roughly 31% of the free float, even as Ortex estimated they were sitting on about $760 million in mark-to-market losses since the IPO. The position has swollen with unusual speed for a stock that has been public for less than a month, turning a bearish call into one of the market’s most crowded new trades.
The surge built on a volatile first stretch of trading. SpaceX opened at $150 on its first day on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX and closed at $160.95, up 19% from the $135 offer price. In the days that followed, the shares reached an intraday high of $225.64 before sliding about 30% from that peak, a reversal that encouraged traders looking for more downside and punished those who had expected a steady post-listing rally to continue.
That retreat matters because of the size of the bet. Reuters said short interest had already risen to about 83 million shares, or 13% of the free float, up from 8% in the prior session, as of June 24. By July 1, that figure had more than doubled to 196 million shares, a jump that underscores how quickly bearish positioning can build around a newly tradable marquee name.
Peter Hillerberg, co-founder of Ortex Technologies, called the pace extraordinary for a stock that had only recently started trading, saying the short interest was building remarkably fast for a company that had been public only a couple of weeks. The mechanics of the trade raise the stakes further: Reuters said every $1 move in SpaceX shares can translate into about $200 million in gains or losses for shorts, making even modest price swings painfully expensive.
SpaceX’s valuation is the other side of the wager. The IPO raised about $75 billion and valued the company at about $1.77 trillion at pricing, while Reuters later said its market capitalization had climbed above $2 trillion. That scale, combined with lingering questions over governance and a rich valuation, has made the stock a natural target for skeptics. Borrow costs were still around 1%, leaving room for more pressure if the stock rebounds and forces shorts to cover, a setup that could turn a crowded bearish trade into a squeeze in a hurry.
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